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PWBA Las Vegas Open to kick off 2018 PWBA Tour season

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Entertainment Capital of the World will serve as the backdrop when the 2018 Professional Women’s Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour kicks off at South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas.

The PWBA Las Vegas Open is the first of 14 events on this year’s PWBA Tour schedule that runs through the third week of September, when the PWBA Tour Championship takes place at Richmond Raceway.

Las Vegas is the host of the opening event for the second time in three seasons. The Las Vegas Open also marks the 47th time The City of Lights will host either a standard or major PWBA event.

Reigning three-time PWBA Player of the Year Liz Johnson of Palatine, Illinois, won the 2016 PWBA Las Vegas Open.

The season officially will get underway Thursday, April 26, with the first official practice session of the 2018 season.

Competition starts Friday with two eight-game qualifying blocks to determine the top 32 players who will advance to Saturday’s competition. After eight additional games Saturday morning, the top 12 players will bowl a final six-game block to decide the four players who will compete in the stepladder finals.

One key change for the 2018 PWBA season will feature the crowning of champions in the host center. In the last two seasons, the championship rounds of standard events were taped for delayed broadcast in conjunction with one of the four major events on the PWBA Tour.

In 2018, fans will be able to watch wire-to-wire action of a PWBA event.

Xtra Frame, the online bowling channel of the Professional Bowlers Association, again will be the livestream home of the PWBA Tour, with live coverage of all 14 events, including the stepladder finals of the first six standard events. Visit XtraFrame.TV for more information.

CBS Sports Network will televise the stepladder finals of seven events on the 2018 schedule, including all four majors, and will have five Saturday prime-time shows. CBS Sports Network’s coverage of the PWBA will begin May 22 with the USBC Queens, the first major event of the season.

Along with South Point Bowling Plaza, seven new stops highlight the 2018 schedule including: National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nevada; Silver Lanes in East Hartford, Connecticut; Fern Valley Strike and Spare in Louisville, Kentucky; ABC West in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania; Cedarvale Lanes in Eagan, Minnesota; and Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl in Columbus, Ohio.

Visit PWBA.com to learn more and for complete coverage of the 2018 PWBA Tour season.